HUMAN RIGHTS IN IRAN

 

In 1985 I read an intriguing statement addressed to the Peoples of the World , called The Promise of World Peace. What Caught my attention was a reference to “Seers and Poets”.

The following is an attempt to try to illustrate how some of my generation’s poets and songwriters were truly inspired and affected by The SPIRIT OF THE AGE, The Advent of ONE WORLD and PEACE as a Goal; expressing this vision in muisc and song, without being directly influenced by any religion or ideology.  

 

 

>Police

One World

>

Words and music by Sting

One world is enough

For all of us

One world is enough

For all of us

It's a subject we rarely mention

But when we do we have

this little invention

By pretending they're a

different world from me

I show my responsibility

One world is enough

For all of us

One world is enough

For all of us

The third world breathes

our air tomorrow

We live on the time we borrow

In our world there's no

time for sorrow

In their world there is no tomorrow

One world is enough

For all of us

One world is enough

For all of us

Lines are drawn upon the world

Before we get our flags unfurled

Whichever one we pick

It's just a self deluding trick

One world is enough

For all of us

One world is enough

For all of us

I don't want to bring a sour note

Remember this before you vote

We can all sink or we all float

'Cos we're all in the same big boat

One world is enough

For all of us

One world is enough

For all of us

One world is enough

For all of us

One world is enough

For all of us

One world is enough

For all of us

It may seem a million miles away

But it gets a little

closer everyday

It may seem a million miles away

But it gets a little

closer everyday

It may seem a million miles away

But it gets a little

closer everyday

One world...

(etc. to fade)

 

In 1974 my father brought back a poster from California, that said

ONE PLANET ONE PEOPLE PLEASE...signed by Seals & Crofts.

It was a song called

One Planet One People Please..

Strong is the light of unity. It can light the world for you and for me.

So why don't we reach out and be one planet, one people, please?

One planet, one people, please. One planet, one people, please.

Please let it be. Please let it be. Ah. . .

Storm clouds are comin' I can see it all. The old world is dyin', it must crumble and fall.

And from every nation I can hear the call. One planet, one people, please.

One planet, one people, please. One planet, one people, please.

There's never been a people on this earth like us,

Who stand to gain or prosper, or lose so much.

If we just reach out so our hearts can touch. One planet, one people, please.

One planet, one people, please. One planet, one people, please.

Please let it be. Please let it be. Ah. . .

It was the first time such a motto was used to promote The Bahai Vision of World Unity and the concept of a Common Wealth of Nations that will in the very distant future ultimately lead to the Spiritualization of the Planet; a a condition we can not even imagine in the light of our current state of spiritual immaturity as conflicted human beings, divided by race, religion and class.

It is interesting to note that Baha’u’llah’s promise of World Peace is of Two kinds,

Firstly: An eventual political Unity and peace leading to a World Commonwealth that will be established without any basis on Bahai ideals; a Peace that will only about only after and as a result of an “Unforeseen Calamity that will Quaken the Limbs of Mankind”, what ever one may interpret from that. This is referred to as the lesser peace, a process the world is currently going through.

Secondly;

Only after Spirituality (not religious , ritual ,dogma or superstition, what John Lennon meant by NO “religion”) becomes the dominant force over Man’s animal nature and crass materialism, will mankind begin to build a truly Peaceful Planet governed representative of the whole Planet.

What is referred to as the Most Great Peace.

 

Spirits in the Material World

Police

 

There is no political solution

To our troubled evolution

Have no faith in constitution

There is no bloody revolution

We are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world

Our so-called leaders speak

With words they try to jail you

The subjugate the meek

But its the rhetoric of failure

We are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world

Where does the answer lie?

Living from day to day

If its something we cant buy

There must be another way

We are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world

 

Then in 1985, there came a statement from the Bahai World Community addressed and presented to the Peoples of The World, which reechoed the promise by Baha’u’llah and laid out in eloquent terms what was about to unfold in the years to come.

Full Text: //reference.bahai.org/en/t/uhj/PWP/

What Caught my attention specifically was the reference to “Seers and Poets”.

The following is a humble attempt to try to illustrate how some of my generation’s poets and songwriters were truly inspired and affested by the SPIRIT OF THE AGE, expressing this vision in muisc and song, echoing the Promise of the Nineteen Century Persian Prophet, Baha’u’llah:

“The Earth is But One Country and Mankind Its Citizens”

“Soon the present order will be rolled up and a new one placed in its stead..”

 

CAT STEVENS

PEACE TRAIN (THE WORLD AS ONE)

 

 

Now Ive been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come

And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Oh Ive been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one

And I believe it could be, some day its going to come

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train

Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

Now Ive been smiling lately, thinking about the good things to come

And I believe it could be, something good has begun

Oh peace train sounding louder

Glide on the peace train

Come on now peace train

Yes, peace train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the peace train

Come on now peace train

Get your bags together, go bring your good friends too

Cause its getting nearer, it soon will be with you

Now come and join the living, its not so far from you

And its getting nearer, soon it will all be true

Now Ive been crying lately, thinking about the world as it is

Why must we go on hating, why cant we live in bliss

Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train

Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again

 

The Great Peace towards which people of good will throughout the centuries have inclined their hearts, of which seers and poets for countless generations have expressed their vision, and for which from age to age the sacred scriptures of mankind have constantly held the promise, is now at long last within the reach of the nations. For the first time in history it is possible for everyone to view the entire planet, with all its myriad diversified peoples, in one perspective. World peace is not only possible but inevitable. It is the next stage in the evolution of this planet—in the words of one great thinker, “the planetization of mankind”.

 

John Lennon

IMAGINE

 

 

Imagine there's no Heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

 

 

Unbridled nationalism, as distinguished from a sane and legitimate patriotism, must give way to a wider loyalty, to the love of humanity as a whole. Bahá’u’lláh’s statement is: “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” The concept of world citizenship is a direct result of the contraction of the world into a single neighbourhood through scientific advances and of the indisputable interdependence of nations. Love of all the world’s peoples does not exclude love of one’s country. The advantage of the part in a world society is best served by promoting the advantage of the whole. Current international activities in various fields which nurture mutual affection and a sense of solidarity among peoples need greatly to be increased.

 

U2 ONE

 

 

Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same
Will it make it easier on you now
You got someone to blame
You say...

One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it

Did I disappoint you
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well it's...

Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One...

Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head

Did I ask too much
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got
We're one
But we're not the same
Well we
Hurt each other
Then we do it again
You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

One...life

One

 

 

 

Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental prerequisite for reorganization and administration of the world as one country, the home of humankind. Universal acceptance of this spiritual principle is essential to any successful attempt to establish world peace. It should therefore be universally proclaimed, taught in schools, and constantly asserted in every nation as preparation for the organic change in the structure of society which it implies.

In the Bahá’í view, recognition of the oneness of mankind “calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.”

Elaborating the implications of this pivotal principle, Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, commented in 1931 that: “Far from aiming at the subversion of the existing foundations of society, it seeks to broaden its basis, to remold its institutions in a manner consonant with the needs of an ever-changing world. It can conflict with no legitimate allegiances, nor can it undermine essential loyalties. Its purpose is neither to stifle the flame of a sane and intelligent patriotism in men’s hearts, nor to abolish the system of national autonomy so essential if the evils of excessive centralization are to be avoided. It does not ignore, nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests to the imperative claims of a unified world. It repudiates excessive centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity”. 11

The achievement of such ends requires several stages in the adjustment of national political attitudes, which now verge on anarchy in the absence of clearly defined laws or universally accepted and enforceable principles regulating the relationships between nations. The League of Nations, the United Nations, and the many organizations and agreements produced by them have unquestionably been helpful in attenuating some of the negative effects of international conflicts, but they have shown themselves incapable of preventing war. Indeed, there have been scores of wars since the end of the Second World War; many are yet raging.

Disunity is a danger that the nations and peoples of the earth can no longer endure; the consequences are too terrible to contemplate, too obvious to require any demonstration. “The well-being of mankind,” Bahá’u’lláh wrote more than a century ago, “its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” In observing that “mankind is groaning, is dying to be led to unity, and to terminate its age-long martyrdom”, Shoghi Effendi further commented that: “Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end.

The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax.

A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life.” 14

From Bahai writings , written in 1936

Faryarm

I leave you with this last one

George Harrison

Give me Love; PEACE ON EARTH.